If you want viewers to see the song title and artist on a YouTube radio stream, OBS needs metadata from the player and a source that can display it. Tuna is the clearest documented starting point: it can write formatted track information to a file for an OBS text source, and can save cover art for an image source.
The important distinction is where the music is playing. Tuna can retrieve information from supported playback sources; it does not listen to arbitrary audio and identify a song. Start by matching your player to a supported integration, then choose a plain label or a more designed overlay.
Decide what information belongs on screen
A useful now-playing display answers the viewer’s immediate question without competing with the music or the rest of the scene. For a radio stream, a single line such as “Artist — Song title” is often enough. A devotional channel might add the album or bhajan collection when that information is supplied reliably; a lofi station might prefer the title and artist only, with cover art as a visual cue.
Decide what you want to show before choosing a plugin. OBS can display text, an image, or a browser-based layout, but those are presentation choices. The source player determines which metadata is actually available. If your music comes from a playlist of local files with incomplete tags, neither a browser overlay nor an elaborate animation can supply missing artist names.
Keep the design legible at the size people are likely to watch. A label in a corner should not cover lyrics, a devotional image, a ticker, or the important part of a local news loop. Try the information at the actual output resolution and on a smaller preview; long Indian artist or track names may wrap or be cut off even when a short test title fits.
There is also a workflow distinction. If you are playing a YouTube Music track in a browser, you may be able to pass its playback information through a documented integration. If your programme is an independently mixed playlist, VLC, or another player, choose the corresponding Tuna source instead. Do not assume that YouTube’s live-stream title or the audio heard by viewers is what the plugin reads. If you are still planning the broadcast around a radio playlist, how to stream a radio station to YouTube from a Mac mini is useful background on the broader playback setup.
Check whether the player exposes song metadata
Tuna is an OBS plugin for retrieving now-playing metadata from supported sources and making it available to the scene. Its documented source paths include Spotify, MPD, VLC, YouTube Music via a web-browser source with Tuna’s local information server enabled, MPRIS, Windows Media Control, window title, last.fm, and Icecast. The upstream project also describes browser-player integrations, including a Tampermonkey script for some players. These are supported paths, not a promise that every source will expose every field.
For YouTube Music, the reviewed instructions say to select “Web browser” as Tuna’s music source, enable the local webserver option, and enable the Tuna plugin in the YouTube Music application. Check the current project instructions and behaviour before relying on that route; the name “YouTube” alone is not enough to determine what Tuna can read. An ordinary YouTube browser video is not automatically the same thing as YouTube Music metadata.
For local playback through a VLC source in OBS, Tuna’s guide describes selecting VLC, refreshing the available scene and source list, and adding the intended VLC source. That guide specifies VLC 3.0.0 or later and says the described integration does not support VLC sources nested inside groups or otherwise nested. VLC may use a file name as the title where tags are absent. Tuna’s option to remove file extensions can prevent the display from ending in .mp3, .wav, or .flac, but it cannot turn a filename into reliable artist metadata.
The OBS resource page lists OBS Studio 28.0.0 as Tuna’s minimum and lists Windows and Linux. Its Linux installation notes distinguish Debian-based packages from manual installation and warn that manual extraction may not work on every distribution; it also notes reports of problems with Flatpak OBS. These details can change as OBS and Tuna releases change, so check the current resource page and release notes before installing. The Tuna resource and setup guide on the OBS Forums is the primary reference for the described plugin workflow.
This is a metadata hand-off, not audio recognition. If your source provides only a window title, that may be all you can display. If it provides title but not artist, expect an incomplete line and decide whether to show just the title or maintain a separate manually updated label. For a channel that depends on a continuous playlist, the scene and audio pipeline also need to recover cleanly; see how to make an FFmpeg YouTube stream recover from network errors for a different streaming arrangement and its recovery concerns.
Use Tuna output with an OBS text source
The simplest documented setup is Tuna writing formatted text to a file and an OBS text source reading that file. In Tuna’s settings, select the playback source, choose the output path and configure the fields or format you want. A documented title-and-artist format is {artists} - {title}. Then add a text source in OBS and point it at Tuna’s output file.
The file acts as the bridge between metadata retrieval and the scene. Tuna updates the contents; OBS renders the text source. That keeps the display separate from the audio itself and avoids editing a label after every track, provided the selected player integration is supplying updates. The Tuna project repository and its OBS resource instructions are the places to check for current source support and field syntax.
Test with the actual player you intend to leave running. Start playback, confirm that the file changes, then confirm that the OBS text source reflects the new text. If the file changes but the scene does not, check the text source’s file path and refresh behaviour. If the file does not change, look first at Tuna’s selected source and whether that player exposes metadata rather than assuming OBS has a font or layout problem.
Formatting is a practical trade-off. A single line is compact, while separate lines for title and artist make longer names easier to read but take more scene space. Choose a readable font size and colour against the video beneath it. Keep the label away from the edge where a player interface or cropping may obscure it, and test the longest plausible title rather than only a short sample.
Not every playback source supports all format options. A blank artist, missing album, or unsupported placeholder can be a source-data limitation rather than a failure to render. In that case, remove the empty field or show only the field that is consistently present. If you create a loop from prepared media instead of a live music player, review the separate considerations in best OBS settings for a 24/7 Hindi devotional music stream; the audio source and display source still need to be tested together.
Add cover art with an image source
Tuna can save cover art for use by an OBS image source. Configure its cover-art output alongside the text output, then add an image source that points to the saved image. This is a separate visual element: it lets you position artwork independently of the title line, and you can omit it when the source has no artwork or when the scene is already busy.
Treat cover art as optional metadata, not an always-present asset. Some sources or tracks may not supply it, and local files can have incomplete tags. Decide what the scene should look like when the image is absent: hide the image source, use a neutral background shape, or leave a deliberate empty space. Avoid a layout that depends on every track having a square image if your playlist does not consistently include one.
Check that the image source is reading the file Tuna updates, not a one-time copy made during setup. Change tracks and verify that the artwork changes as expected. Also check the crop and aspect ratio in the scene. A square image squeezed into a wide frame can look distorted; use OBS’s sizing and crop controls to preserve the image’s proportions.
The art and text do not necessarily update in exactly the same way for every player. If the title changes but the art does not, check whether the current source provides cover data and whether Tuna has a new image to write. A missing cover should not make you conclude that the track itself was not detected. Keep the label useful on its own so that the stream remains understandable when the artwork is unavailable.
Consider the community browser overlay requirements
A separate community project, NowPlayingRevamped-universal, offers a more designed browser overlay with artist and title, album art, a progress bar, animations, and customisation. This is not the same as Tuna’s basic text-file display and it is not an official Tuna distribution. Its documented implementation combines OBS, Tuna, Windows Media Control, and a local web server.
The project’s README describes setting Tuna to save title, first artist, and cover-art files, enabling Tuna’s webserver on port 1608, serving the overlay files locally, and adding the resulting URL as an OBS Browser Source. Its example uses a 500 by 150 browser source and says to refresh the source when its scene becomes active. Treat these as that project’s documented example settings, not requirements for Tuna generally; verify the current README before following them.
The Windows requirement matters. The overlay relies on Windows Media Control, so it is not a platform-neutral shortcut for Linux or macOS users. The local web server is also a requirement of the documented setup, not an optional way to make a plain Tuna text source work. If you do not want those dependencies, the file-based text and image sources are the simpler path.
There is another source-selection caveat. The overlay documentation reports that when multiple browser sources play at once, Windows Media Control may show whichever source became active most recently and may not return to an earlier source until a track-change event. That can produce stale or unexpected now-playing information in a scene with several active media sources. Keep one intended player active where possible and test switching scenes and tracks before leaving the channel unattended.
Use the community overlay when its visual treatment is worth the extra setup and its requirements fit your computer. If your need is only a title and artist line, a browser widget adds moving parts without changing whether the playback source supplies metadata. For a browser-player script or widget route, follow the current instructions of the project that provides it; do not treat a userscript as a universal OBS feature.
Compare the display paths
The options differ less in what they know about a song than in how they obtain and present the metadata. The source integration is the deciding factor; the output style comes after it.
| Display path | What it is suited to | Main dependency to check | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tuna text file and OBS text source | A compact title and artist label | Supported player source and available fields | Simple scene element; styling is mainly OBS text formatting |
| Tuna cover-art file and OBS image source | Showing art beside a text label | Playback source must provide usable cover art | Adds a visual element, but some tracks may have no art |
| Community browser overlay | A more designed layout with progress and animation | Windows Media Control, Tuna, and a local web server | More layout options, with platform and source-selection constraints |
| Browser-player userscript integration | Metadata from a supported browser player | The specific player script and its current instructions | Useful for some browser playback, but not a general audio identifier |
This comparison is not a ranking. If you use VLC on a supported setup and need one line, the text-file route is a direct fit. If you run OBS on Linux, check Tuna’s current packaging notes before investing in a Windows-dependent community overlay. If a player’s metadata is unreliable, changing the display design will not fix it; you may need to improve the source tags or choose a playback workflow that exposes the information you need.
Test updates before leaving the channel running
Test the complete scene, not only the plugin settings. Start a track, wait for the title and artist to appear, change to another track, and check that the text and image both update. Then switch away from and back to the scene. A source that looks correct on first load may need a refresh on scene activation, particularly when using a browser source.
Check a few cases that reflect your actual library: a track with a long title, one with no artist field, one with no cover, and a change between players if your workflow uses more than one. This makes it easier to distinguish a metadata limitation from a text layout problem. Do not leave a blank {artists} placeholder on screen just because it appeared in the configuration example; simplify the output if the source consistently omits that field.
If Tuna does not appear under OBS Tools, its resource guide says it may have been installed incorrectly or not loaded by OBS. Check the installation method for your operating system and OBS packaging, then consult the OBS log for load errors as the guide recommends. Confirm that your OBS version and plugin release are compatible, especially if you use a distribution package such as Flatpak.
For VLC, verify the version and make sure the source is not grouped or nested in the arrangement described by the guide. For browser integrations, confirm the selected source, local information server setting where required, and current player behaviour. If a community overlay shows an unexpected player, reduce simultaneous active media sources and repeat the test after a track change.
Once the scene works, leave it running long enough to observe more than one update cycle before treating it as finished. A static preview only proves that OBS can render a file or browser page; it does not prove that the selected player keeps supplying fresh metadata. For an always-on channel, consider whether someone can notice and correct a stale title, and whether the stream remains clear if that label stops updating.
When the repeated manual work of keeping a scene alive is the problem rather than metadata design, StreamNeo removes the need to leave your own computer running the broadcast after you have prepared the file and connected the channel. It does not change the need to choose a suitable source or ensure your displayed track information is accurate.
Before committing, compare the operating options on the pricing page. When the file and channel are ready, start free — 24-hour trial, no card.
FAQ
Does Tuna identify any song playing through my microphone or speakers?
No. Tuna retrieves metadata through supported playback-source integrations; it is not a universal audio-recognition tool. Check whether your chosen player exposes the fields you want before building the display around them.
Can I show YouTube Music information in OBS?
The documented Tuna route uses the web-browser source, enables Tuna’s local information server, and enables Tuna in the YouTube Music application. Check current Tuna and YouTube Music behaviour, and do not assume that an ordinary YouTube video or your live stream’s own title is read the same way.
Do I need the community overlay to show cover art?
No. Tuna can save cover art for an OBS image source, which you can use beside a text source. The community browser overlay is an optional layout with its own documented Windows Media Control and local web server requirements.
Why is the artist or artwork missing?
The selected playback source may not provide that field, or the track’s tags may be incomplete. Test another track and check the source’s metadata before changing the OBS layout; showing only the fields that arrive consistently is often clearer.